The Prosperident Exchange

This episode is a special presentation from the DSO Secrets Podcast. Ken Kaufman of Community Dental Partners interviews Prosperident's David Harris, Wendy Askins, and Amber Weber on a topic of growing urgency within the group dentistry world: how embezzlement happens inside Dental Support Organizations — and what makes it different from theft in a solo practice.

As DSOs continue to grow and consolidate dentistry, the financial oversight challenges they face are unique. Multi-location structures, delegated management, remote ownership, and high employee turnover all create conditions that experienced embezzlers know how to exploit. The Prosperident team draws directly on their investigative work inside DSOs to explain how these crimes unfold and what organizations can do to prevent them.

Topics covered include:

• How embezzlement dynamics change in a multi-location DSO environment
• Why DSOs are attractive targets for experienced financial criminals
• The internal control failures most commonly exploited in group practices
• How embezzlers adapt their methods when oversight is distributed or remote
• The role of location managers and how their position creates vulnerability
• Technology and reporting systems that help DSOs detect theft early
• Recommended audit and oversight structures for DSOs of different sizes
• Real examples from Prosperident's DSO investigations

This episode originally aired on the DSO Secrets Podcast and is shared here with permission. Join the DSO Secrets community on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/DSOSecrets.

To learn more about Prosperident's work with DSOs and solo practices, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

Prevention is always better than investigation. In this practical, action-oriented episode, Prosperident's David Harris, Wendy Askins, and Amber Weber share the concrete strategies dental practice owners can implement right now to make their practices dramatically harder to steal from.

Drawing on direct experience investigating embezzlement in hundreds of dental practices, the Prosperident team knows exactly which vulnerabilities embezzlers look for and exploit. This episode is their definitive guide to closing those gaps — the internal controls, oversight habits, and management practices that put up the barriers most embezzlers won't bother trying to get past.

Topics covered include:

• The mindset shift from "it won't happen to me" to active prevention
• The most important internal controls every dental practice should have
• How to use your practice management software as an oversight tool
• Bank reconciliation: what to do, how often, and who should do it
• How to structure financial oversight so no single employee can steal undetected
• The role of regular audits and what they should include
• How to make it clear to your team that theft will be detected and prosecuted
• The conversations practice owners need to have about financial oversight
• Which prevention steps deliver the most protection per hour invested

The goal of this episode is simple: to give every dental practice owner the knowledge to make their practice a far less attractive and far less accessible target for would-be embezzlers.

To learn more about embezzlement prevention and investigation, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

Financial mastery is one of the most underleveraged competitive advantages available to dental practice owners — and one of the most neglected. In this episode, Prosperident's David Harris, Amber Weber, and Wendy Askins are joined by senior investigator Scott Clifford for a wide-ranging conversation about the financial fundamentals that every practice owner needs to understand and actively manage.

Too many dentists hand over financial oversight to employees or accountants and never develop the fluency needed to know when something is wrong. This episode is designed to change that — giving practice owners a clear, practical understanding of their financial statements, key performance indicators, and the oversight habits that protect profitability.

Topics covered include:

• The financial reports every dentist should be reviewing — and how often
• How to read a dental practice profit and loss statement effectively
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) that signal the financial health of a practice
• Production vs. collection: understanding the gap and closing it
• How overhead ratios should look for a healthy dental practice
• Common financial mistakes dentists make when delegating oversight
• How financial mismanagement and embezzlement often look the same on paper
• The questions you should be asking your bookkeeper and accountant
• Building a financial oversight routine that takes minutes, not hours

Financial confidence is not just about protecting against theft — it is about making better decisions, reducing stress, and building a practice that supports the life you want.

To learn more about practice financial protection, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

The statistics on dental embezzlement are sobering — but statistics don't tell the full story. In this powerful episode, Prosperident's Amber Weber and Wendy Askins sit down with four dentists who have lived through embezzlement firsthand: three Prosperident clients and one dentist who handled the situation independently.

Hearing directly from victims strips away the abstract and makes the reality of dental embezzlement impossible to dismiss. These are real practitioners — smart, hardworking, diligent people — who were victimized by employees they trusted. Their stories are candid, their reflections are honest, and their advice is something every dental practice owner should hear.

Topics covered through the four interviews include:

• How each victim discovered the embezzlement — and what triggered the discovery
• How long the theft went on before it was caught
• The emotional impact of discovering that a trusted team member was stealing
• What each dentist wishes they had done differently before the theft began
• The experience of working through an investigation
• What the legal and financial outcomes looked like
• The difference in experience between those who used Prosperident and those who did not
• What each dentist now does differently to protect their practice
• Their message for other dental practice owners

This episode is essential listening for any dental practice owner who believes embezzlement is something that happens to other people. It doesn't. It happens to practices exactly like yours — and to dentists exactly like you.

If you suspect embezzlement in your practice, contact Prosperident before taking any action. Visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

This is one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of the Prosperident podcast. David Harris was given a rare and extraordinary opportunity: a face-to-face interview with one of dentistry's most prolific embezzlers — a woman who has worked at, and stolen from, over a dozen dental practices.

She contacted Prosperident herself. Her stated reason: to "set the record straight." What followed was a candid, unsettling, and deeply revealing conversation that offers dental practice owners an unprecedented window into the mind of someone who has made a career out of stealing from dentists.

Topics that emerge through the interview include:

• How she selected the practices she targeted and what she looked for
• The methods she used to steal and evade detection across more than a dozen offices
• How she rationalized her actions to herself and to others
• What she observed about dental practice owners that made them easy victims
• The warning signs she deliberately concealed
• What finally brought her activities to light — and how many times
• Her perspective on the dentists she stole from
• What she believes practice owners should do differently

We leave it to listeners to form their own judgments about her account. What is undeniable is that this interview contains insights that no textbook, seminar, or training program can replicate — because it comes from someone who has operated on the other side of the transaction for decades.

To protect your practice from embezzlers like the one described in this episode, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

What goes through the mind of someone who steals from their employer — and what brings them to genuine remorse? In this rare and candid interview, Prosperident's David Harris sits down with a convicted dental embezzler who agreed to speak openly on the condition of anonymity. She embezzled more than $250,000 from her dentist employer and served time in state prison.

Unlike many who minimize or deflect, this woman speaks with what appears to be genuine reflection about what she did, why she did it, and what she wishes had been different. Her account is not an excuse — it is an honest attempt to help others understand how these situations develop and how they might be prevented.

Topics covered in the interview include:

• How she first began stealing and what made it feel possible
• The specific methods she used to take and conceal over $250,000
• How she justified her actions to herself over time
• The moment she knew it would eventually catch up to her
• What the arrest, prosecution, and incarceration were like
• How her life changed after release and what "reformed" actually means
• What she believes dentists could have done to stop her earlier
• Her message to other dental employees who may be considering theft
• Her message to dentists who want to understand what they're dealing with

This interview is a companion piece to the serial embezzler interview in Episode 18. Together they offer two very different perspectives from two very different kinds of offenders — and together they contain some of the most actionable intelligence available to dental practice owners anywhere.

To protect your practice from embezzlement, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of dental practice — including how embezzlement happens. In this timely episode, Prosperident's David Harris, Wendy Askins, and Amber Weber examine how the events of 2020 and 2021 changed the financial threat landscape for dental practices, and what practice owners need to know as they navigate the post-pandemic environment.

Practice closures, staff furloughs, government relief programs, remote management, and rapid reopening all created new opportunities and new methods for financially motivated employees. The Prosperident team breaks down what they observed in their casework during and after the pandemic and what it means for how dental practices should think about financial oversight going forward.

Topics covered include:

• How the pandemic disrupted the financial oversight routines of dental practices
• New embezzlement methods that emerged or accelerated during COVID-19
• How government relief funds (PPP, EIDL, etc.) became a new theft vector
• The relationship between financial stress — both practice and employee — and theft
• How staff changes during the pandemic created oversight gaps
• Why post-pandemic practice busyness makes embezzlement easier to hide
• Emerging patterns in how embezzlers are operating in 2021 and beyond
• The specific countermeasures that address post-pandemic theft patterns
• How to rebuild financial oversight systems that may have eroded during closures

Embezzlement doesn't pause during a crisis — in many cases it accelerates. This episode equips practice owners with the awareness and tools to stay ahead of the evolving threat.

To learn more about protecting your practice, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

This episode is a special cross-post from the Dentist Money™ Show, hosted by Ryan Isaac of Dentist Advisors. Ryan sits down with Prosperident founder David Harris for a frank conversation about one of the most financially significant threats dentists face over their careers: embezzlement.

The statistics are stark — the majority of dental practice owners will experience embezzlement at some point during their careers. Yet most dentists significantly underestimate the risk and overestimate their ability to spot it. Ryan and David cut through the myths, profile what a real embezzler looks like, and give listeners the specific warning signs that should trigger action.

Topics covered include:

• Why the statistical likelihood of dental embezzlement is higher than most dentists realize
• What actually motivates employees to steal from people they work with every day
• The profile of a typical dental embezzler — and why it rarely matches the stereotype
• The most common warning signs that embezzlement may be occurring
• Why dentists who see warning signs often do nothing — and the cost of delay
• What to do when you notice something that doesn't add up
• How Prosperident's investigations typically unfold
• The financial and emotional impact of embezzlement on dental practice owners

This conversation originally aired on the Dentist Money™ Show, a podcast dedicated to helping dentists make smart financial decisions across their careers. Learn more and listen at dentistadvisors.com/dentist-money-show-podcast.

To speak with Prosperident about protecting your practice, visit www.prosperident.com or schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

Auto-generated transcript: The Dentist Money Show Podcast - Embezzlement Warning Signs You Need to Know

Hey, Dennis Money Show, listeners. This is Ryan Isaac. I'm very excited about today's interview. This is with the great David Harris from Prospera. I'm not joking when I say we talk about murder and fake names and disguises and lies and fraud and deceit and Inbezzlement, it's crazy how common Inbezzlement is in dental practices. Grab a pen and a paper, take lots of notes you're not going to want to miss this episode. Just a reminder, please join us in our free Facebook group where we post questions and polls and have great discussions. Go to denestetvises.com slash group and join up or if you want to chat with us, go to Denestetvises.com, click on book free consultation and schedule appointment to chat with one of our advisors today.

You can also call or text us at 833DDS plan. Thanks again for tuning in to this episode with David Harris. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show. Consult an advisor or a condenser-owned due diligence when making financial decisions. General principals discussed during this program do not constitute personal advice. This program is furnished by denestetvises or registered investment advisor. Welcome to the Denest Money Show, where we help Denest make smart financial decisions. I'm your host, Ryan Isaac, and I'm here today with a new friend of the show. Mr. David Harris of Prospera, then. How you doing, David?

Good. How are you, Ryan? I'm doing well, man. I'm, uh, how's we here to say? And I'm excited to have you on the show. You've worked with some of our clients in the past. Been listening to other interviews you've done lately, so I'm excited to have you a lot of questions here. So. I'm not your mate. Yeah, that's the point here. I'm excited to have you on here. So the first thing I'd love for you to, and you do this all the time,

but I'd love for you to give a little background on where things started from you. I've learned for myself that you've had a really cool background. What's up with, I wrote some of these quotes down. You called yourself, uh, you were a self-proclaimed, miscreant, and a self-proclaimed under a cheever. And now you run this, like, massive, the biggest dental fraud and bezelman firm in the, in the world, probably, right? Yeah, you know, when I was in high school, I think my parents just spared that I would ever make anything of myself. And I actually ran into my own history teacher a couple of years ago, and he remembered me. And, and because I was so undistinguished and, and I said to him, yes, I remember you trying to teach me history, and that it was painful for both of us.

So, academically, I wasn't much of an achiever and got in some trouble and ended up joining the army because it sounded a whole lot better than jail. Oh, that's right. Yeah, I remember you're in that. Had a, had a chance there to, um, really sit and think about how differently criminal's not than everybody else. And I, I had a job where I was breaking into military bases as a way of improving the security. Really, that was, uh, you kind of, you're describing your background's like my dream job. Like I watched those shows where they take X-Cons and they bring them into the FBI to, you know, no offense to everyone I work with. I love my job, but that's kind of my dream job, you know, that's really cool. So you kind of, you kind of did that. I did that. And that's when I really started thinking about how, as I say, criminals approach the world differently than everybody else.

And that knowledge is something that I still use every day. And certainly our, our good investigators are really a depth at putting themselves in issues of a criminal in a certain situation. And saying, okay, if I was going to steal in the situation, how would I do it? Yeah. And, and that's what, that's what distinguishes a skill investigator from an average one. Yeah. And, and yeah, I spent a lot of time thinking that way. And then I had one of those chance occurrences. I, after I left the army, I worked for a bank for about five years. I had, my job there was sitting at home and sort of thinking about what I was going to do next. And I got a call and it was a guy who had been in high school with who was now a dentist. And he said to me, I think my friend has person stealing and I have no one else to call.

So I really wasn't very busy that day. So I said, all right, I'll come over to the practice afterward. So once he closed up, I came over and we found what she was doing fairly quickly. This was back in the days before computerization. So the old pegboard system that said, Okay, you know, some folks with great hair, remember, finally. The way I found this investment wasn't exactly what the doctor thought I was going to do. I mean, I got, I got into the practice and he shoved the ledgers at me. Yeah. And I said, now we're going to approach this little differently. I'm going to think like this person's probably thinking, well, what I started doing was going through that. And taped underneath one of her drawers, they found her cheatbook.

Oh, my god. That's like mafia style. Well, a lot of ambassadors, you know, especially if they're, if they're carrying on for a long time, need to write down what they did. Yeah, he track of what's real and what's what's fiction. Yeah. And in those days, the, the cheatbook was like a notebook. Wow. Now it's more, more commonly, you know, an Excel spreadsheet on the computer. I like on the phone or something. Yeah, it was a book. So I found a cheatbook. And once I found that, a whole thing. I'm truly really fast. So one of the things I'm thinking right off the bat now that I've always wondered is when you actually help somebody discover that it is, in fact, happening.

How, I mean, how do they feel like what's, what's kind of the emotional is there a relief? Is it relief mixed with crap now? What? Or I mean, how does that, how does it work? In part, I think it depends on how suspicious they were. I mean, we get people who call us and say, I don't really have any particular reason to think I'm that risk. But the possibility of investment bothers me and I can like to know. Yeah. And when we, if we find investment in those situations, which happens sometimes, they're shocked. Yeah. And they've, you know, they've really been, been looking for reassurance that it's not happening. Yeah. And they have the people at the other end of the continuum who are pretty suspicious already. And, you know, they want to get an expert involved in it. And in those cases, Relief is probably the best emotion. What the two groups share though is is really a sense of violation.

This is not crime. like when somebody, your car's parked in a parking lot, somewhere, and somebody smashes up the window and takes a place. This is personal. This is done by somebody who you know really well, who's daughter's wedding, you are at three months ago, not really realizing that you were funding it.

Yeah. Yeah. And there's a sense of violation. Yeah. OK, so I want to still give some context around how you, you let into this and maybe just two minutes about prosperity then too, you've said before, and I think this is very true in this subject, and probably a few other financial subjects

You asked — and Prosperident answered. In this audience-driven episode, Wendy Askins, Amber Weber, and David Harris work through a mix of pre-submitted and live questions from dental practice owners and team members on the topics that matter most: embezzlement, financial oversight, suspicious employee behavior, and what to do when something doesn't feel right.

Q&A episodes like this one offer something that structured presentations can't: the unscripted, specific, real-world questions that practitioners are actually wrestling with. The questions in this episode reflect the genuine concerns of dental practice owners across North America, and the answers carry the weight of Prosperident's decades of investigative experience.

Questions addressed in this episode touch on topics including:

• What specific behaviors or patterns should raise suspicion
• How to handle a situation where you have a gut feeling but no hard evidence
• What to do — and not do — before calling an investigator
• How Prosperident's investigation process works and what to expect
• The role of police and prosecutors and how criminal cases actually proceed
• Whether it is possible to recover stolen funds after embezzlement
• Common myths about embezzlement that the hosts dispel
• Prevention measures audience members are wondering about

If you have a question about embezzlement or financial security in your dental practice, contact Prosperident through the website at www.prosperident.com, at www.dentalembezzlement.com, or by phone at 888-398-2327. You can also schedule a consultation directly at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

Auto-generated transcript: You Ask, We Answer

You are listening to the dental practice owner's podcast. Brought to you by Prosperident. From our unique perspective as dentistry's and bezel-lit experts, Prosperident's team can bring you the information that is important to practice owners. The dental practice owner's podcast brings you strategies, tools and tips that you can use, and dentistry's thought leaders as guests.

So sit back, relax, and listen to Prosperident's Amber Weber. Wendy Askins and David Harris, talk about the issues that matter to you.

Join us on a regular basis for back-lives, and we wanted to have a special edition of our Prosperident Power Hour. You ask, we answer. So we wanted everybody who's attended, and people on the dental world to submit their questions to us, so that we could take the time to go over some important facts with you, our special audience. Back to you, Dave.

I wanted to start tonight by just reintroducing us, because it's been a while since we told you about who we are, and we just kind of assume sometimes that everybody knows. I'm David Harris, I'm the CEO of Prosperident. I've been investigating dental and bezel-lit now for 31 years, and a couple of weeks. I'm a CPA, but please don't hold that against me. I'm also a certified fraud examiner,

and what's called certified in financial forensics. My two cohabosts, who I think of privately as the Texas Pernados, because they both live in Texas, I should introduce, and I'll start with Amber Weber. Amber spent years as a dental hygienist, and then moved in office management, and then consulting, and then I has been with us since 2018. We have three levels of examiner here,

which are called fraud examiner, senior fraud examiner, and supervising examiner. So Amber was promoted, actually, we did it here on one of these episodes to senior examiner. She's our newest senior, but has a whole lot of background. Anyway, she's a terrific gal. The other thing I'll mention is that this whole webinar series

was Amber's idea, and she came to me with it, and said, well, you know, people have all this downtime, and I've been arguing about it. My response was basically, you know, I don't know if anybody's interested in that. Anyway, we did it anyway. We've had over 3,500 people to our webinars, and it was absolutely Amber's branch up.

So that's co-host number one. Co-host number two is Wendy Askins. Wendy is one of our longest serving investment investigators. She started with us, actually, I ended up looking up today in 2012. So eight plus years for Wendy. Wendy is one of three people who hold the title here of supervising examiner. So there are most senior examiners and tackle some of the really ugly files.

Wendy also heads our orthodonic investigation department, and she has a very deep background in orthodonic and really, you know, understands that business like nobody. Tonight, we get to have a little surprise for Wendy, because we're going to present her with something tonight. One of the things that we recognize that prosperity is milestones for when people have uncovered a certain amount of investment. And it's my great honor tonight to present Wendy with her $2 million pin.

It's a gold pin with the prosperity. But do you want to reach through the screening, grab it? Yeah, you can. Here's the actual pin in how it walks. I was worried Wendy that if I opened the box, people would think I was going to propose to you or something. And I have a wife and she has a husband. So let's just take that off the table now.

But anyway, it's a tremendous honor to recognize Wendy's achievement. And I'm covering the $2 million of investment. And what I have to tell the audience, Wendy, that they probably wouldn't know otherwise, is that the actual investment in those cases was much, much, much higher than that. And all we're counting is what Wendy counted in each case before she started. And when you're investigating a investment,

there's always a point where it just doesn't make sense to keep looking anymore. And that happens actually fairly early in most investigations. And we're going to talk about dental insurance coverage for this little while. And I think the audience will see exactly what I mean. But that's the tip of a much bigger iceberg. Anyway, congratulations Wendy. And it's truly an honor to be working with you. Thank you so much.

Okay, well, I'm going to ask, again, thank you so much Dave, that means so much to me. I'm going to try to complies myself. If you know me, the person you know I'm a cryer. So anyway, so today's webinar, you ask and we answer. Our webinar is going to be a little bit longer this evening, because we really want to spend time answering your questions and detail. Now, so if this is your first webinar,

you're not aware what we did was we send a charge out over social media and in the past webinar that we did last month, we're going to be asking, what would you like us to talk about more? What do you want to hear more about? And so lots of people send in questions and we picked the top 14 to the 15 questions. So we're going to be answering those for you today. And we're also going to be answering some live questions at the end. So if you think of anything during this session, please, don't hesitate to chat it out to us and we'll be able to answer that for you as well.

So like I said before, we get a lot of questions. As investment becomes more the topic of conversation. And honestly, as people are becoming more comfortable in talking about it, even our clients are becoming more comfortable in getting their testimonies or telling about their experience, as you saw with some of the individuals in the beginning before we started the webinar. What we're finding are people just have a whole lot of questions. And during this webinar, we're not able to answer all of them because we get barrage by questions. So we either end up missing them, getting a slight overview of the answer,

or we have to return the answer in an email. So this is a wonderful opportunity. that we're taking tonight. We're going to slow down and we're going to be detailed about the top 14 to 15 questions that were sent into us by your colleagues. Take it away Amber. All right. So our first question is a question that we get asked many times. Sometimes before we complete an investigation. Sometimes if we're not even completing an investigation and it is easy, I'm going to fire this employee anyway. I also think they might be embezzling. Do I need to wait until after profanity finishes? So we did a webinar on this that you can reference to, uh, called breaking

up as hard to do. But the simple answer is no. You do not have to have proof or catch someone red handed to terminate their appointment with you. There are some things you need to be aware of though that if you're in an outwell state that allows you to terminate an employee, you need to make sure you have reference and there's not legal ramifications such as unemployment, discrimination. But the main thing to remember here is terminating an employee should not make reference to possible on business. So in the past we discussed that this, that you need to have documentation and policies and procedures in place that gives you a good foundation for terminating that employee and gives you good reasoning

Dentistry trains exceptional clinicians. Business ownership is an entirely different skill set — one that most dentists acquire, if at all, through expensive trial and error. In this episode, Prosperident's Amber Weber, Wendy Askins, and David Harris are joined by Dr. Wayne Kerr for a wide-ranging conversation about the financial and managerial challenges that come with owning and leading a dental practice.

Dr. Kerr brings the perspective of a practicing dentist who has worked through the learning curve of practice ownership and emerged with hard-won insights that most dental school curricula never cover. Together with the Prosperident team, he addresses the practical skills that make the difference between a practice that thrives and one that merely survives.

Topics covered include:

• The business skills dental school doesn't teach — and where to get them
• How to transition from thinking like an employee to thinking like a business owner
• Financial literacy for dentists: what you need to understand and why
• Managing and leading a dental team effectively
• How to delegate intelligently without creating financial vulnerability
• The relationship between strong management and reduced embezzlement risk
• When to seek outside help and what kinds of advisors are worth the investment
• Building systems that let your practice run predictably and profitably

Strong practice ownership skills are not just about profitability — they are also the foundation of a practice that is harder to steal from. A well-managed practice with clear systems and engaged leadership is a far less attractive target for would-be embezzlers.

To learn more about protecting your practice, visit www.prosperident.com, www.dentalembezzlement.com, or call 888-398-2327. You can also schedule a consultation at www.prosperident.com/meetwithdavid.

Auto-generated transcript: Honing Your Practice Owner Skills

You are listening to the dental practice owner's podcast. Brought to you by Prosperident. From our unique perspective as dentistry's and bezel-lit experts, Prosperident's team can bring you the information that is important to practice owners. The dental practice owner's podcast brings you strategies, tools and tips that you can use, and dentistry's thought leaders as guests.

So sit back, relax, and listen to Prosperident's Amber Weber. Wendy Askins and David Harris, talk about the issues that matter to you. He named into a family. So happy that you are able to join us this evening. And spend some time with us. I'm Wendy Askins, Prosperident, Superbizing Examiner. My co-host this evening, our Amber Weber,

a Superbizing Examiner at Prosperident. David Harrelitt Harris, our fearless leader at Prosperident and Dr. Wayne Kerr, is joining us as a special surprise tonight. Leaving. Hi Wayne. Hey Wayne, how are you? Great to be with you tonight. What a privilege.

Thank you. So good to have you. Awesome. And it's my pleasure to introduce a guy I've known for years. He is one of the finest men to ever walk the planet in my mind. His name is Wayne Kerr. He is a former practicing dentist. He's a master of the Academy of General Dentistry,

which is a pretty elite group. He's now a teacher and educator and speaker. Wayne is hands down the coolest senior citizen I know. He's got a lifetime of experience. And we were just delighted to have him share it with us. So Wayne, it's great to have you. And we look forward your contribution tonight. If you're a great pleasure and privilege to be here.

Thank you for your very time words. There's a challenge in being a practice learner. In addition to doing good clinical dentistry, because if that part doesn't happen, nothing else is really important. You wear a lot of hats as a practice learner. And you're stretched a lot of ways. And really what we're going to do tonight is try to give you a little bit of help and some tools in handling some of these areas.

And I'm going to quote a couple of people. I'll start with Harry Truman, who said the buck stops here. And I guess another way you could put that is that crap rolls downhill and as a dental practice learner, you're going to forever live in the valley. So how do you make it work? Well, there's a business strategist who does a lot of work within us. His name is Chuck Blakeman. And Chuck wrote kind of a seminal book a number of years ago.

And the title of the book is making money as killing your business. Now, this book is not specific to dentistry, but it certainly fits. And the temptation is always to, or the trade-off, that you always make is between, I spend the next 20 minutes doing something inside somebody's mouth, or I spend the next 20 minutes doing something that runs my business. And what I'll say is that most dental practice owners suffer from a predisposition to the first one. That's the happy place. That's where you want to be.

And that makes it easy to make the decision in terms of doing something billable in the next 20 minutes. David, can I explain to you a short story? Please. So it's my first week in my first practice in 1978. I have, this is my new dental supply rep. And I leave the app at the door. And I come out.

And I spend several minutes meeting him and getting to know him. And telling him I'm looking forward to working with him through the coming years. He says, you can't be here talking to me because you're not making any money. Unless you're back in the app at the right spin on the bird and grind it down. Somebody's tooth. And I said, no, I think I will learn a great deal from you through the years with regard to new products, new techniques, new pieces of equipment that can help me perform a higher level, provide a greater level of service, being more efficient, and therefore,

or productive, and therefore more possible. And that's my story that I learned early on in my career that you got to work on your business as much as you work in your business. And that's a very important point. Absolutely. And very theoretically, everybody who's here listening to us tonight could be doing the same thing tonight. Good night. I mean, they could be spin in the bird and treating people.

Some time investments that do not directly generate you revenue are, are still vitally important. And we're going to talk about a few of those tonight. We are going to talk about a few of this. And the first one starts with accountability. That's owners accountability by the way. In my entire career in dentistry in orthodonics, it's been heavy in delegation. And I've loved that because I've been able to do so many different things within different practices and different businesses. But delegation does not need application on the part of the business owner.

The business owner still has to follow up on that's delegated task to make sure that they're being completed accurately. The very first casualty of investment is transparency. And that's Amber's quote. Oh, Amber. Listen to that again. The very first casualty of investment is transparency. I'm often baffled about what sometimes when I speak with clients and I'll ask them questions and they'll just say, I don't know. You know, and of course they didn't know the investment was happening, but there's no follow up.

And then, you know, someone once told me, you know, I ask the same question. I ask for this employee to explain these transactions to me for over a year. And she just told me, don't worry about it. I haven't taken care of. You go back in the clinic and you do your thing and let me worry about it. So again, there we see there's no transparency in the transactions that are being completed. And also, you know, we often talk about our teams being families like our daytime family and she's my work BFF, however you want to call them. But I'm baffled also how it is that there are some people who get threatened if you try to make a suggestion to them or you offer advice to them

or you ask them to train another employee so that you can do cross-training. This is an issue because in best-lers don't like for anyone to be in their space. They want to be alone and they have to be secretive and they are not transparent. But accountability starts from the top. The greatest, what's the word I'm looking for Dave? Detection is the greatest what?

What's deterrent? Detirent. Oh my gosh I failed the test. What? Detection is the greatest deterrent to investment. So if an investor feels like you're on to them or you might be detecting some issues with that, just step up and ask them that question. Because accountability starts at the top. It starts with the business owner asking questions, making the staff members aware that the business owner is looking at certain reports or they are doing a reconciliation and they're looking at what goes in the bank. And it doesn't come naturally for healthcare givers because we want to trust each other with our full hearts. We want to give our hearts to our patients